Cross Country on Monday

Posted on 3 May, 20193 May, 2019 by Nick Bruce

Our school cross country is on Monday 6th May. The Year 3 race will start at approximately 2:15pm and the Year 4 race will start at approximately 2:20pm. The children will need to wear appropriate footwear and are welcome to wear their house shirts on Monday.

Here is the map of the route that the Year 3 and 4 students will take:

The route is as follows:

Start at the cricket pavilion facing school
Run towards school
Turn right to run parallel alongside school
Turn right to run away from school and in front of the tennis courts
Turn right to run along the back fence behind the row of trees.
Turn right to join the gravel path that runs in front of the cricket pavilion.
Stay on the gravel path and follow it along the ponds and back up to the school for a second lap of the park.
Turn right and run behind the tennis courts.
Turn right to run along the back fence behind the row of trees.
Turn right to join the gravel path that runs in front of the cricket pavilion.
Turn right, guided by the cones into the finishing shoot.

Cross Country

Posted on 3 May, 20193 May, 2019 by Amber Donovan

Cross Country
On Monday 6th May we are having our school cross country! Your child/children are welcome to wear their house shirts on Monday. They will need to wear appropriate footwear.
Our Year 1-3 children will be out on the field from approximately 2.05pm.

Swimming information for all, please read.

Posted on 30 April, 20196 May, 2019 by Kate Swan

30th April 2019

Dear Parents/Caregivers

Swimming at Aqua Gym

We are really looking forward to the swimming lessons at Aqua Gym that start Monday 13th May.

Please make sure that your child has a separate named swimming bag to keep all their swimming belongings in. Over the weekend, we would appreciate you taking the time to check your child’s uniform, towel, togs, swimming cap and bags are all clearly named. As you can appreciate, it would be quite challenging to find the owners of unnamed clothing when taking 97 children swimming.

Reminder: Aqua Gym requires ALL children to wear a swimming cap for their lessons and the children will be required to wear a suitable swimming costume: either shorts or togs. Please no bikinis. If you have any spare swimming caps that you are happy to loan us, please send them to school on Monday for us to use for any students that don’t have a cap.

We recommend you packing a few extra items in their lunch box too as they will no doubt have a greater appetite when swimming everyday.

Thank you to the wonderful parents who have kindly offered to help us at the pool.

For parent helpers:
Thank you so much for offering to be a parent helper. Here is the timetable for the week.

Expectations of parent helpers:

Please be at school by 8.50am to leave on the bus at 9am for the first group of swimmers. If you are unable to parent help on your given day, can you please email Kate or Rowe as soon as possible so we can organise another parent helper.

Your role is to be an extra pair of hands to help supervise children on the bus and at the pool. As a parent helper, you will be helping out at the pool until the last group of swimmers has finished which is 12pm.

At the pool during changing times, please check that all children have their belongings in their swim bag and they will need to bring these out from the changing rooms and put them into the cubbies by the pool.
Please could you assist children with putting on swim caps before their lesson.
At the end of the swimming lesson, the children will change independently and we would love for you to help the children put on shoes and socks and check the changing rooms are clear of belongings.`

Monday 13th	Tuesday 14th	Wednesday 15th	Thursday 16th	Friday 17th
Emily Gray Carolyn Aitken Bel Moneypenny Jody Smith (all able to help if possible for the first session)	Sarah Henderson Jaana Aramowicz	Bridget Clayton Olivia Grantham	Justine Eade Rachel Reedy	Kate McDonald Jacqui Radford
Reserve: n/a - we have enough	Justine Eade	Nathalie Doering	Olivia Grantham	Nathalie Doering

Monday 20th	Tuesday 21st	Wednesday 22nd	Thursday 23rd	Friday 24th
NO Swimming Staff Only Day	Justine Eade Jaana Aramowicz	Nathalie Doering Nicola Reddecliffe	Rachel Reedy Olivia Grantham	Kate McDonald Jacqui Radford
Reserve:	Nathalie Doering	Kelly- Anne Bullen	Justine Eade	Tracy Roberts

Have a wonderful week ahead
Kind regards

Kowhai Teaching Team
Paulette, Nick, Kate and Rowe

Kōwhai News Week 1 Term 2

Posted on 28 April, 201930 April, 2019 by Paulette Newton

Welcome back, everyone!

We are really looking forward to seeing the children on Monday and hearing all about their amazing adventures over the past two weeks.

This term we welcome Dorinda to our teaching team. She is super excited to be working full time with our tamariki and we are so pleased to have her incredible talents at our disposal! Our home groups are all beginning in new spaces this term so the children and teachers have an appreciation of the areas in our learning space.
Kate- The Breakout Room
Rowe-Nook
Nick-Gallery
Dorinda- Atrium

What's on this term?

This term we will be learning about inventions and what it means to be innovative. We have some really cool learning experiences for the children to explore these ideas and we will also integrate this into our Literacy programme.

Reading

This term, children reading Level 20 and below will continue to have a guided reading session every day with their teacher and will take home a browsing book for reading fluency each night.

Children reading above Level 20, will be asked to have a chapter book that they can comfortably read and for enjoyment. If your child is reading a chapter book at home, please send this to school on Monday in their book bag. Each day after morning tea, the children will DROP and READ for 15minutes. This will also be the book they will read at home at night for 15-20 minutes.
We would encourage you to discuss what your child had read to you to ensure they understand any new vocabulary and to monitor they are comprehending what they are reading. Continuing to read to your child is invaluable!

School Photos

Apologies, in the madness of packing up the hub in preparation for getting the carpets cleaned, the school photos didn't get sent home. These will come home with your child on MONDAY and will be found in their book folder. Please make sure your child has their book folder at school.

Swimming

THANK-YOU to all the wonderful parents who have kindly offered their support at our swimming lessons. Rowe and Kate are taking over the organisation of this and will be in touch to confirm the days that you are needed. We only need one more parent for Wednesday 22nd May. If you can help, please fill in this form.

XCountry

We have our school cross country on Monday 6th May. Our start times are at approximately Year 3- 2.15pm and Year 4 - 2.20pm. We do need the help of some parents on the day to be course marshalls. If you are able to help us, please fill in this google form ASAP so we can ensure the safety of the children on the day. On Monday, we will walk the children around the course so they know where to go. Here is the map of the route they will run for your reference.

The track is as follows:

Start at the cricket pavilion facing school
Run towards school
Turn right to run parallel alongside school
Turn right to run away from school running in front of the tennis courts
Turn right to run along the back fence behind the row of trees.
Turn right to join the gravel path that runs in front of the cricket pavilion.
Stay on the gravel path and follow it along the ponds and back up to the school for a second lap of the park.
Turn right and run behind the tennis courts.
Turn right to run along the back fence behind the row of trees.
Turn right to join the gravel path that runs in front of the cricket pavilion.
Turn right, guided by the cones into the finishing shoot.
After crossing the finish line stay in order and line up at your year group’s

Reminder from school newsletter 12 April

Early closing - Tuesday 7th May

As you may be aware, the negotiations between our teachers' union, NZEI, and the Ministry of Education continue with no agreement yet in sight. We are hosting a paid union meeting at Beckenham on Tuesday 7th May (replacing the meeting that was cancelled last term following March 15th events). We will be closing at 1:45pm on that day and request that you arrange for your children to be collected at 1:45pm, please.

That's all for now! Have a wonderful week ahead

Kōwhai Teaching Team

Kauri Whānau Weekly Update: Term 2 ready to go!

Posted on 26 April, 201926 April, 2019 by Nicky Dunlop

We hope you have had an enjoyable two weeks and that everyone has recovered from camp. The teaching team has had a chance to catch our breath and we are enthused for another great term of learning, creativity and adventure.

Fundraising for Camp and Show Quest

Last term we postponed our Kiwiana Bingo Night following the Friday attacks. This is now going ahead in on Saturday May 18th. Click this link now to book your tickets for what promises to be an entertaining evening full of laughs and bingo fun. We also need your help to put this night together. Please click this link if you are able to help Leigh and her team.
Proceeds from this fundraiser will go to camp and once we have reached the camp target of $2000, the rest will go towards Show Quest fees.

Sport

Cross Country

Our school cross country is coming up on Monday of week 2, May 6th. We need parent helpers for this event. Please fill in this form if you can help.

Winter Sport

Weekly winter sport gets underway on Friday May 17th. We now have enough coaches. Many thanks to those of you who will be working with our children and making winter sport possible. Teams will be sorted in the first couple of weeks and then more information will be shared with you.

Basketball

We have two teams entered in the Monday after school basketball competition at Pioneer Stadium. Those involved would have received an email about this earlier today.

Passion help on Thursday afternoons

Our passion options this term include: volleyball, 123 Tech, buddies, theatre sports and monster softies. If you have some basic sewing skills and would like to help out with the monster softie group from 1:45 - 2:45 on Thursday afternoons, please fill in this form.

ShowQuest

During term 1, the dance passion group conceptualised and choreographed our ShowQuest performance and presented their work to the Kauri team. The children made choices on the parts of the dance that they wanted to be involved in and rehearsals started in the last few weeks of term.

The dance portrays themes of diversity and acceptance as it tells the story of a girl who experiences exclusion and cyberbullying. The dance is divided into four sections: the chair dance, cyberbullying scene, removing labels and the finale. All children are on stage in the last part of the finale.

All children are involved in this performance and need to be available all day and into the evening on Tuesday, May 21st. Please check below for your child's costume requirements. Tickets can be purchased from Ticketech.

Please see the following list for the costume requirements for your child. Let us know if you need support sourcing any of these things.

The Chair Dance - School uniform (red polo shirt, black shorts or leggings).
Teacher (Jain) - Knee length skirt, shirt or blouse, tights, black shoes.
Cyber Bullying scene - Girls: black singlet and black leggings. We are providing a white skirt. Boys: white t-shirt and black shorts. Dance slippers or toe savers are preferred.
Removing labels - Black long sleeved top and black leggings, shorts or trousers. Children will be barefoot.
Finale - School uniform (red polo shirt, black shorts or leggings).

Technology

Technology starts up again on Tuesday. Please remember that children need to be at school by 8:30am. Classes are outlined below.
Group A moves from Digitech to Fabric Tech
Group B moves from Fabric to Food Tech
Group C moves from Food Tech to Hard Materials
Group D moves from Hard Materials to Bio Tech
Group E moves from Biotech to Digitech.

Camp

No doubt your child would have returned from camp rather tired and with heaps of stories to share. We had a fabulous week away, full of challenges, new experiences and fun. A huge thanks to all of the parents who helped with camp, from the hard-working camp parents to those who helped prepare meals. We have laid out all of the lost property and baking containers in our maker-space. Feel free to pop in before school and collect what belongs to you. Over the next month, we will be putting together a camp photo-book, including descriptive writing from some of the children. These will be made through Snapfish and will cost around $25. When the children fill in their camp feedback form (on google classroom now if they would like to do this), they will indicate if your family would like to order a photo-book.